Picturing Women in Science

Good news for those working to fight stereotypes: When asked to “draw a scientist,” children today are more likely to draw a woman in that role than children were in the past, finds a meta-analysis in Child Development. The researchers analyzed 78 studies, with data collected over the past 50 years from more than 20,000 U.S. children and teenagers. In data collected in the 1960s and 1970s, less than 1 percent of children drew women scientists; among studies conducted from 1985 to 2016, that number was 28 percent. However, stereotypes still hold sway, and they become more pervasive as children get older–the researchers found that even today, teenagers are less likely to draw women scientists than young children are.(Monitor on Psychology)